1^st November. 0230 hours

"Remind me not to get on his bad side,” Jongin replied, turning to his left only to find Soojung’s face a little bit closer than he’d like it to be.

“Look, I don’t mean to interrupt this sweet moment but we really need to get going,” said Luna. Soojung and Jongin turned away from each other, both cheeks already tinted pink. For some reason, their brief exchange of pleasantry was quite… pleasing, to say the least.

Chanyeol went over to Sulli and Sehun, who was still recovering from Luhan’s throw.

“Hey dude, you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. My arm’s a bit sore but nothing’s broken.”

“How about you Sulli? You alright?” Chanyeol quickly turned to Sulli after hearing Sehun is fine, much to his annoyance.

“Yeah, I’m used to this actually,” she said timidly which made Sehun wished he had punched the bastard in the face instead of grabbing his collar.

“Don’t take his words to heart. He’s a bit rough sometimes but he’s a good guy, really.”

Sehun scoffed. “Yeah, right.”

“We better get going. A second late and the guards will suspect something.”

1^st November. 0322 hours

With his head under the cover, Sehun forced himself to steady his breaths. He heard the door swung open, felt the guard’s gaze penetrating him under the covers and calmed himself from trembling and blow it all out.

But then he heard silent sobs coming from beside him. He wanted to jump out of the covers and slipped into hers and just calm her down but he didn’t hear the door slamming shut or the heavy footsteps of the guard going out of the room so he stayed. There was so much at stake and he couldn’t risk it just because he can’t control his emotions.

He heard the guard coming closer, his heart started beating against his chest. He prayed to whoever could hear his silent pray that Sulli would be alright and nothing would harm her. There was a brief pause and everything was quiet for awhile. Sulli’s sobs started slowing down to silent hums and he heard the heavy footsteps leading to the door before it was slammed shut.

Sehun exhaled, not realizing until then that he had held his breath. He got out of bed and went to Sulli’s as soon as he was sure the guard was far away from their room.

“Sulli… are you alright?”

All he heard was her muffled sobs.

“It’s alright, Sulli.  I’ll take care of that damn bastard the next time I see him.”

He didn’t realize his fists were clenched until Sulli reached and spread his fingers before interlocking it with hers. He looked down and saw Sulli smiling weakly at him.

“Don’t…” Her voice came out weak just like her smile, “Useless… I’m useless…”

“What?”

“Evil… I’m evil…”

That was the last he heard from her before she was unconscious.

1^st November. 0903 hours

Sehun woke up to the blinding light coming from the only window in the room. It felt like a thousand bricks were dropped onto his head when he tried to sit. He turned to his side and saw an empty bed. He was trying to make sense of everything when he heard the door clicked and slipped into his covers and turned to his side, facing the wall.

Despite the irritating pain in his head, he tried to calm himself from breathing too loud and listened intently to the sound of footsteps entering the room.

There wasn’t one but two people entering the room and they didn’t make it a point to be quiet either. There were intelligent mutters and scientific names he couldn’t understand which clearly explained who the two people are. It wasn’t usual for the ‘doctors’ themselves to come into a patient’s room as the guards usually do the dirty work for them.

Sehun stayed still as the two doctors came closer and he heard the familiar beep from the screen before their intelligent conversation changed into something he could understand.

“This girl is something, huh? Four days and still nobody knows what she can do.”

“Not too loud, ! That’s supposed to be confidential.”

“Oh please, who can hear me? These walls are soundproof for a reason.”

The room was silent except for the sound the keyboards made as the doctors typed on the screen.

“Did you know this one wiped out an entire town from the map? By the time they got there, she was standing on rubble and ashes with fire blazing in the background.” Sehun noticed excitement in his voice.

There was a sigh -Sehun guessed it was of annoyance-, before the conversation continued.

“Look, I don’t need you to tell me about this one. I read her files, I know everything. Now c’mon, we’re done here. Let’s get out.”

Sehun heard the sound of footsteps leaving the room before a grumble and much heavier footsteps followed. When the door was shut, he waited a few minutes before getting out of his bed and went over to Sulli’s bed.

He said to her he’d never look at her chart again but the doctors’ conversation piqued his curiosity. Sehun knew next to nothing about Choi Sulli and he’d be lying to himself if he said he didn’t want to know anything about her.

Four days and no one knowing what her ability is? This is not standard procedure. Usually the doctors would know their ability and classify it in less than two days. Four days is certainly not normal. What was so exceptional about Sulli that even four days is not enough to ‘diagnose’ her?

Sehun hurried his steps towards Sulli’s bed before anyone else could enter the room. There was a moment of hesitation before he opened Sulli’s charts that were hidden in the screen on the foot of her bed. He skimmed through the contents and read words he didn’t understand. There were pages of black font from the last few days before his eyes caught the striking colour of red.

This is not good.

The red font was a definite contrast from the white of the pages. Sehun realized the date written was today. This was new and definitely not good.

He counted from the top of his head, what he thought was odd from the days spent with her.

How she always avoid the topic of her past…

Her struggle to keep herself in check…

The rumours of her destroying a town...

Sehun sat on her bed as realization sank in.

Sulli’s ability was unexplainable by numbers and their usual ways of classifying has backfired. Her ability must be something very rare and very powerful for it to be inconclusive even by the latest technology or the greatest equipment. She was way more powerful than someone in level 5.

Sulli is an anomaly.

Sehun heard footsteps approaching suddenly. He quickly got up and closed the file with a tap, before slipping into his covers for the third time today.  The door clicked and in came Sulli. Sehun yawned and sat up, acting as if he just woke up. He saw Sulli’s face - ashen and tired - and he wished she didn’t have to go through so much pain. She smiled at him and his heart tightened.

“Is everything alright?” Sulli asked, noticing a difference in Sehun that morning. She couldn’t quite explain it but he seemed somehow disoriented.

“Everything’s fine. How about you? The treatment alright?” Sehun replied, trying hard to keep a smile on his face.

Sulli smiled wider. “It wasn’t too harsh. I think I’m starting to get used to it.”

The breakfast bell rang and Sulli jumped to her feet and scrambled to the door. She stopped before realizing Sehun wasn’t following her.

“Aren’t you coming?”

“What? Oh yeah, yeah, I’m coming.”

Sehun got up and joined Sulli at the door, taking her hand in his and smiled at her.

Your secret’s safe with me, Sulli.